The basics of reading data from resistive touchscreens

[Chris] just posted his latest tutorial which shows you how to read position data from a resistive touchscreen. These devices are fairly simple, and since they’re used in a lot of consumer electronics you can pick one up for a few bucks. This looks like it is overstock for an old Palm device.

The interface is simple, there’s just four conductors on the tab at the top of the overlay. But connecting to these is a bit of an issue since you can’t really solder directly to them. [Chris] ended up using scotch-tape to hold wires in place, with a paperclip to keep them presses against the conductors. Those conductors are used in pairs, with a positive and negative lead for the X and Y axis. To take a measurement you use I/O pins to connect voltage and ground, then read the voltage that makes it to the gound side using an ADC. This works because the point that’s being pressed on the screen acts as a variable resistor for the circuit. Data for the two axes must be read in separate operations so that the positive voltages don’t interfere with each other.